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Suhrawardi's "Recital of the Occidental Exile"

Thus
saith the knowledgeable gnostic Master, the Unique of his age and teacher of his
epoch; the Master and Blazing Meteor of the Religion (shihabuddin) Suhrawardi,
may God sanctify his spirit and illuminate his grave.

In the Name of God
the Compassionate, the Merciful!

Praised be unto God, the Lord of all the worlds. And
salutations be upon His chosen servants, especially our master Muhammad, the Chosen, his family and companions – all of them!

As for the matter at hand: When I read the Recital
of Hayy ibn Yaqzân (The Living son of the Watchful) [of Avicenna] I found
it lacking in that certain Illumination regarding the supreme experience of the
Great Overwhelming (79:34), despite the admirable phrases and
suggestions contained in it. This experience is guarded like a treasure in the
Holy Scriptures, confided in trust to the symbols of the sages and hidden in
the Recital ofSalâmân and Absâl, also written by the author of
the Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzân . This is the Secret confirmed by
the spiritual stations of the Sufis and of those who possess visionary
intuition. No reference is made to it in the Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzân
except at the very end where it says: "Sometimes certain solitaries
among men journey towards Him..." Then I wanted to tell of a few
things myself, in the form of a recital that I have called the Recital of
the Occidental Exile, dedicated to certain of our noble brethren. As for
what is of my own design, I offer this to God.

I

1.Beginning of the Recital. Once upon a time, my
brother 'Asim and I undertook a journey to the land of the Occident,
being from the land across the river, to hunt certain shore birds from the Green Sea.

2. Suddenly we came upon "the city whose
inhabitants are oppressors" (4:77), I mean the city of Qayrawân.

3. The inhabitants noticed our sudden arrival and
gathered that we were the children of a Shaykh known as al-Hâdi ibn
al-Khayr (the Guide son of the Good) the Yemenite.

4. They surrounded us, tied us up in chains and a yoke
of iron, and threw us as prisoners into an infinitely deep pit.

5. A high castle fortified with many towers stood over
the empty pit into which we had been thrown.

6. We were told: "You commit no offense if you
climb up to the castle when night falls and you have no clothes on. But at
daybreak you absolutely must return to the bottom of the pit."

7. In the bottom of the pit there certainly was "darkness
upon darkness" (24:40). When we extended our hands we could
scarcely see them.

8. But during the hours of night we climbed up to the
castle that stood over the immensity of space and we looked in through one of
its windows. Often doves came to us from the forests of Yemen and told
us how things were in that forbidden region. Sometimes a bright light from Yemen visited us, whose bright flash from the
"right side" (28:30), from the "oriental"
side, told us about the family living in the Najd.
A breeze filled with the aromatic scent of the arak awakened in us
ecstasy after ecstasy. Then we gasped from desire and nostalgia for our
homeland.

9. Thus we climbed up at night and got back down during
the day. Then, one night when the moon was full, we saw a hoopoe (27:20),
it came through the window and greeted us. In its beak there was a message that
came "from a blessed spot on the right side of the valley, from inside
a bush" (28:30).

10. It said to us: "I have seen
(27:20) the means of your delivery and bring both of you 'truthful
news from the Kingdom
of Sheba" (27:22).
All is explained in this message from your father."

11. We took cognizance of the message.
This is what it said: "You are being addressed by al-Hâdi your
father. In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. We long for
you, but you feel no nostalgia. We call you, but you don't commence your
journey. We give you signs, but you don't understand them".

12. Then the writer gave me directions in
the message, like this: "You there, if you want to save yourself at the
same time as your brother, don't wait with resuming you journey. Grab a hold of
our cable, that is, of (the nodes of) the Dragon of the Heaven of the Moon over
the spiritual world that rules the ends of the ecliptic."

13. When you have arrived in the "valley
of the ants" (27:18) shake the hem of your robe and say: "Glory
be to God who has brought me back to life after having cut my body to pieces."
(2:244 and 261) "To Him we shall return who is our
Resurrection." (67:15) Then be finished with your relatives.

14. Be no longer concerned with your wife,
"because she is among those who stay behind." (15:60 and
29:31) "Go where you are commanded," (15:62)
"for these people will be utterly destroyed by tomorrow morning."
(15:66) Get into the boat and say: "In the Name of God, as it
moveth and as it rests!" (11:41)

II

15. Everything that would happen en route
was explained in the letter. The hoopoe went ahead and the Sun was just above
our heads when we arrived at the edge of darkness. We took our places in the
vessel and it carried us "to the wilderness in the mountains."
(11:44) Our plan was to climb mount Sinai and then to visit the oratory
of our father.

16. Then "the floods rose"
separating me from my brother and "he was among those who were swallowed
up." (11:45)

17. Then I understood that the time of the
occurrence of the threat that was the concern of my people was the morning.
"Isn't morning near?" (11:83)

18. I knew that "the city that
surrenders itself to wickedness" (21:74) will be turned upside
down "from top to bottom" (11:84) and that it would
rain "bricks of clay upon them." (11:84)

19. When we came to the place where the
floods dashed against each other and the waves rolled, I took the nurse who had
nursed me and threw her into the sea.

20. But we traveled on a ship "made
of planks and nails." (54:13) Thus we voluntarily damaged it (18:78)
in the belief that there was a king behind us who "took every ship by
force." (18:78)

21. And the "laden ship"
(the ark, 26:119) carried us past the island of Gôg and Mâgôg
(18:93 ff.) on the left side of mount al-Jûdî (11:46).

22. However, there were artisans with me
who worked for me and I had at my disposition the source of molten copper. I
told the artisans: "Blow on the iron until it becomes like fire"
(that I may throw the molten copper on it, 18:95). Next I erected a
barricade so that I was separated from Gôg and Mâgôg (18:94).

23. Then I truly realized that
"the promise of your Lord is true" (18:98).

24. During the journey I saw the pits
of 'Ad and Thamûd; I crossed the region and "it was
desolate and in ruins" (2:261 and 22:44).

25. Then I took the two burdens and the
spheres and put them and the artisans in a bottle that I had made into a round
shape, with lines like circles on it.

26. I cut off the currents of living water
from the realm of the heavens.

27. When the flow of water was cut off to
the mill, the building collapsed and the air supply disappeared.

28. I flung the Sphere of Spheres against
the heavens so that it pulverized the Sun, moon and stars.

29. Then I escaped from the fourteen
coffins and the ten tombs where the shadow of God comes to life again, the kind
that is "drawn little by little" (25:48) to the hieratic
world after "the sun has been given as a guide" (25:47).

30. I found God's way. Then I understood:
"This is my Path and it is straight." (6:154)

31. During the night my sister "was
overtaken by the divine scourge." (12:107) She remained wrapped
in darkness for a small part of the night and from fever and nightmares fell
into a state of complete collapse.

32. I saw a lamp with oil in it; a light
shot out of it into the different parts of the house. There even the lamp niche
was set on fire and the inhabitants were illuminated from the effect of the
light of the sun rising above them.

33. I placed the lamp in the mouth of the
Dragon that lived in the castle of the water wheel; under it was a certain Red Sea; above it were stars of whom no one knew the
places of irradiation except their Creator and "those who have a lot of
experience of the Knowledge." (3:5)

34. I noticed that both Leo and Taurus had
disappeared; Sagittarius and Cancer were both involuted in the folding caused
by the rotation of the Sphere of Spheres. Libra stayed in equilibrium when the Star
of Yemen (Suhail, Canopus)
rose from behind some slender clouds, composed by what the cobweb of the angles
of the elementary World drew in the world of generation and corruption.

35. There was still a sheep with us; we
left it in the desert where it perished from the trembling of the earth while
lightening fell upon it.

36. Then, when the entire distance had
been traveled and the road had come to an end, while the "water welled
out from the furnace" (al-tanur, " athanor",
11:42 and 23:27) in a conical shape (of the heart), I saw the
celestial bodies; I united myself with them and heard their music and their
melodies. I was initiated into their recital; their sounds struck my ears like
that of a bell-like sound produced by a chain drawn over hard rock. My muscles
were at the point of tearing, my joints felt like breaking, so vivid was the
pleasure that I experienced. This did not cease happening in me until the white
cloud went away by dissipating and the membrane was broken.

III

37. I left the caverns and the caves and
was finished with the vestibules: I went straight to the Spring of Life.
Then I saw the Great Rock at the summit of a mountain that looked like the Sublime Mountain. I asked the fishes that
were frolicking in the Spring of Life, enjoying the quiet and the gentleness of
the shade of the Lofty
Peak. "What is
that high mountain," I asked, "and what is that Great Rock?"

38. Then one of the fishes "chose
a certain current for its way in the sea." (18:60) It told me:
"That is what you so ardently desire; that mountain is Mount Sinai and that Rock is the oratory of your father".
"But who are these fishes?" I asked. "These are your
equals. You are sons of the same father. They have passed a test similar to
yours. They are your brothers."

39. When I heard that answer and
experienced the truth, I embraced them. I rejoiced in seeing them like they
rejoiced in seeing me. Thereafter I ascended the mountain. Behold, I saw our
father as a Great Sage, so great that Heaven and Earth were about to split
asunder from the epiphany of his Light. I stayed amazed, stupefied. I came
close to him and behold, like a leader he greeted me. I bowed to the ground
before him and was left speechless in the Light that radiated from him.

40. I cried for a moment when I lamented
to him about Qayrawân's prison. He told me: "Have courage! You
are saved now! It is still absolutely necessary that you return to the
occidental prison because the fetters have not yet completely unclothed you".
When I heard those words my reason left me. I wept and cried like one who is at
the verge of dying and I called out to him.

41. He said to me: "It is
unavoidable that you return there for the moment. However, I have two good
things to tell you. First, once returned to your prison, it will be possible
for you to return again to us here and easily climb up to our paradise,
whenever you want to. Secondly, you will be totally free; you will be joined to
us and leave the Occidental land behind you completely and forever."

42. His words filled me with joy again. He
also said: "Know that this mountain is Mount Sinai
(23:30, Tûr Sinâ'); but above this mountain there is another one: The
Sinai ( 95:2,Tûr Sînîna), of the One who is my
Father and your Grandfather, to whom I am related just like you are to me.

43. "We have still other ancestors
and our ascendance finally ends at a King who is the Supreme Forebear, who
Himself has no ancestors and no father. We are His servants; we owe Him our
Light and we borrow our Fire from His Fire. He possesses a beauty more imposing
than any other beauty, the most sublime majesty and the most subjugating Light.
He is beyond all Beyond. He is the Light of Light, beyond Light and Eternity
for all eternity. He is the Epiphany for all things and "all things perish
except His Face." ( 28:88)

44.Postscript. This recital is
about me, because I have lived through a disaster. From the higher space I fell
into the abyss of hell, among people who are not believers; I am a
prisoner in the land of the Occident. Nevertheless I keep feeling a certain
sweetness that is impossible to describe. I am sobbing, I am imploring, I am
gasping with regret about this separation. This passing stand-off was one of
the dreams that quickly faded.

45. From the prison of Nature and the
impediment of Matter save me, O my God!. "And say: Praise be to God,
who shall soon show you His Signs so you shall know them, and your Lord is not
unmindful of all that you do." (27:93) "Say: Glory to
God! But most of them do not understand." (31:25)